Sweeney out for the year: knee tendinitis surgery

Carl Steward, filling in for Joe Stiglich. Here’s a brief story I filed on Ryan Sweeney for the website. More details forthcoming.

In yet another injury setback for the hard-luck A’s, right fielder Ryan Sweeney was placed on the disabled list and will be lost for the season after electing to have surgery on his right knee to alleviate patella tendinitis.
The 25-year-old Sweeney, who was hitting .294 with one home run and 37 RBIs, has been the A’s No. 3 hitter for much of the year. He has been bothered by the knee tendinitis since last season but received occasional injections to curb the pain. After the pain worsened, Sweeney had an MRI last week and made a mutual decision with the club that the surgery was necessary.
A date has not been scheduled for the surgery but Sweeney said it will be very soon. He hopes to be back 100 percent for spring training in 2011.
Noted Vail, Colo., orthopedic surgeon J. Richard Steadman, who has performed knee surgeries on numerous professional athletes including John Elway, Joe Montana and Bruce Smith as well as U.S. Olympic skiers Phil Mahre, Picabo Street and Bode Miller, will conduct the surgery on Sweeney.

Joe Stiglich

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ugh… man, after 08, that trade was looking good for oakland. now… well, i like sweeney, but at 26 next year, that whole potential/growning into his ability/projection line seems rather expired. even when healthy, a solid, (not great or even very good, but solid) average with no power corner outfielder can only be worth so much. now, he’s probably not even going to have his speed when he comes back. bummer. he’s a “nice ” player, but nice isn’t necessarily what you need as your starting right fielder. especially with swisher looking rather above than average in new york. gonzalez? a poor man’s left handed bobby witt anyone?

i guess it goes to show, it’s not always about flippign assets for younger anc cheaper… maybe swisher wouldn’t have added many if any wins to the team these past few years, but it goes back to that whole putting a face to the team aspect. middle of the line up power source anyone?

http://www.quest88.com crutches

I agree with Crister, harsh as it sounds 26 is a little late i the day for hoping for a real take off in his career. The recovery of an injury like this is extremely slow.